Mozambique Elections: Decision to recount or to annul vote “difficult but necessary”- Mozambican Bar Association

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Mozambique Elections: Decision to recount or to annul vote “difficult but necessary”- Mozambican Bar Association

2:11 CAT | 14 Dec 2024

File photo: O País

The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) came public yesterday to criticise the method of comparing general election notices used by the Constitutional Council to validate the results, pointing to a possible recount or annulment of the vote as solutions for “harmonising society”.

“It is crystal clear that the veracity of the notices (documents) cannot be verified by simply comparing them, but by testimonial evidence, since they were signed by people who must attest to their materiality”, reads a document issued by the Bar Association on the statements made by this week the president of the Constitutional Council (CC) during a meeting with political parties.. [The statement by the Mozambican Bar Association in Portuguese is HERE, an English translation by CIP is HERE]

For the Mozambican Bar Association, comparing the notices presented by candidates in the elections and by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) is not the legal criterion for validating documentary evidence, considering this procedure to be an “innovation in relation to the current legal framework”.

“What the Constitutional Council is doing by comparing the notices, with a view to producing evidence, does not represent any material truth within the process (”principio do dispositivo’/’rules of evidence’), but rather represents an initiative of this judicial control body”, the OAM document also reads.

The Bar Association also suggests that the CC hold a public hearing on the electoral process, with the presence of representatives, journalists and observers, producing “legal and legally admissible evidence”, if the body’s intention is to give credibility to the vote.

“As is clear to see and easy to achieve, holding the public hearing does not influence the examination or decision of the case and that in this case the ’cause’ is nothing more than the discovery of the material truth and/or electoral truth of these elections”, the lawyers state, adding that given the discrepancies admitted by the CNE, the CC should have referred back the validation and proclamation process so that the irregularities could be corrected.

Mozambican lawyers also pointed to the recount of votes or the annulment of the October 9 elections as a “meeting point and harmonization” for society in the face of the violent protests contesting the results of the vote.

“The decision to recount or annul does not need to be declared on December 23, 2024, and can be taken at any time. It is a difficult but necessary decision. We had already mentioned the need to recount the votes, but they did not listen to us. Our society is on the brink of collapse, with the total absence of the State”, concludes the OAM document.

READ: CIP Mozambique Elections: Constitutional Council election document check is illegal say lawyers

Mozambique Elections: Constitutional Council says it cannot carry out full recount – AIM

Since October 21, Mozambique has been experiencing successive strikes and demonstrations to contest the results of the October 9 general elections, called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, which have already caused at least 110 deaths and more than 300 injuries as a result of clashes between the police and protesters, according to an updated report by the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Plataforma Eleitoral Decide.

The results of the October 9 elections announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) gave victory, with 70.67% of the votes, to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), and placed Venâncio Mondlane in second place, with 20.32%, but Mondlane does not recognize the results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.

In one of his last live broadcasts on the social network Facebook, Mondlane promised to be in Maputo to take office as President of Mozambique on January 15, the date scheduled for the inauguration of the new head of state.

Source: Lusa